Standoff detection and classification procedure for bioorganic compounds by hyperspectral laser-induced fluorescence

The high and still increasing number of attacks by hazardous bioorganic materials makes enormous demands on their detection. A very high detection sensitivity and differentiability are essential, as well as a rapid identification with low false alarm rates. One single technology can hardly achieve this. Point sensors can collect and identify materials, but finding an appropriate position is time consuming and involves several risks. Laser based standoff detection, however, can immediately provide information on propagation and compound type of a released hazardous material. The coupling of both methods may illustrate a solution to optimize the acquisition and detection of hazardous substances. At DLR Lampoldshausen, bioorganic substances are measured, based on laser induced fluorescence (LIF), and subsequently classified. In this work, a procedure is presented, which utilizes lots of information (time-dependent spectral data, local information) and predicts the presence of hazardous substances by statistical data analysis. For that purpose, studies are carried out on a free transmission range at a distance of 22m at two different excitation wavelengths alternating between 280nm and 355 nm. Time-dependent fluorescence spectra are recorded by a gated intensified CCD camera (iCCD). An automated signal processing allows fast and deterministic data collection and a direct subsequent classification of the detected substances. The variation of the substance parameters (physical state, concentration) is included within this method.